Disciples News Service

Category: Office of the General Minister and President

And how are the children? “How are the children… all of the children?” This refrain from a sermon preached by the Rev. Traci Blackmon, the United Church of Christ’s acting executive minister for Justice and Witness Ministries at the Near East School of Theology’s chapel service in Beirut, Lebanon, echoed throughout a recent Global Ministries […]

Maundy Thursday They brought us coffee. The thick Turkish kind that gets stuck in your teeth. One of the young men of the community brought it to where we were standing, talking. We could see him coming with it – a small kettle and cup. One tiny espresso cup. Our interpreter said quietly, “Drink, and […]

Egypt. One of the stepping off points for the Arab Spring – and for the disappointment that followed. Land of pharaohs and pyramids, of desert and of fertile Nile basin. Home to the most Christians of any Middle Eastern country. Ten percent of Egyptians are Christian. That Jesus spent time in Egypt matters: “Out of […]

In March 2016, Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ led a delegation of church leaders to the Middle East to meet ministry partners there. Disciples Mission Fund and Week of Compassion support these partners and many others in the land where Jesus and the apostles first […]

Item 1 – Mission Council for Mission First! pilot named General Board Business Item # GB-16-0937 Title: Nominees to the Mission Council Origin: General Nominating Committee Background At the 2015 General Board Meeting, GB-15-0934 Report of the Mission Council Task Force was approved. This approval included receipt of the actual task force report, approval of […]

by William Bauzo, Jeff Goodier and Dean Phelps From February 5-7, 2016, 21 members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) met as the Social Witness Task Force in Indianapolis. This group was formed in response to GA-1524 which called for “the Office of General Minister and President, Disciples Home Missions, Division of Overseas Ministries, […]

As leaders in the faith community, we the undersigned, write to express our opposition to the current immoral and unjust ICE raids, as ordered by your administration and carried out by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña.

Many of you have been watching as the Indiana legislature once again took up the questions raised by last spring’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. You may recall that Governor Mike Pence signed a law that within a week was “fixed” due to the negative reaction from people of faith, businesses, convention planners and the general citizenry of the state. The revision made clear that it could not be used for purposes of discrimination.

Most folks recognize that the staff of the general Church continues working beyond each general assembly, but there are also dozens of volunteers who are working behind the scenes. Moderators, board members and task force members are meeting now to bring proposals forward that will affect the life and work of the Church for years […]

Last spring I walked across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma with other Disciples – a racially mixed group crossing together.

A lot has changed since 1965.

Through the brave struggle of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others, the segregated lunch counters and drinking fountains and restrooms went away. Voting rights legislation was put into place.